New coach hired at ECU

Mike Netti, who has spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach at Gardner-Webb University, has joined the East Carolina men's basketball staff head coach Jeff Lebo announced on Wednesday. Netti replaces former assistant coach Tim Craft, who was recently named head coach at Gardner-Webb.

"We are very excited to have Mike Netti join our basketball staff," Lebo said. "Mike brings with him his experiences from Syracuse along with nine years of coaching at multiple Division I schools in addition to two years as a head coach at the junior college level.

"He's a terrific recruiter with multiple contacts throughout of the state of North Carolina and an excellent tactician. He was instrumental in helping turn the Gardner-Webb program into a 20-game winner last season."

Netti helped resurrect the Bulldog program from a 5-win team when he arrived in 2010 to a school-record 21-win season this past year and earn an invitation to the CollegeInsiders.com Postseason Tournament, the program's first Division I postseason appearance. He also tutored guard Tashan Newsome to Second-Team All-Big South Conference honors.

Additionally he recruited Winterville, N.C. native Donta Harper from South Central High School. As a sophomore last season, Harper ranked second on the team in scoring (12.7), while averaging 28.1 minutes per game.

"I'm ecstatic about this opportunity at East Carolina and the chance to join Coach Lebo's staff," Netti said. "I'm excited to be able to work with such a first class staff and program. I have great respect for what this program has been able to accomplish. The commitment and culture that they have developed is tremendous. The future is for ECU basketball is bright and I'm very happy to be part of it."

Prior to rejoining the staff at Gardner-Webb, where he began his coaching career in 2002, Netti served two years among the junior college ranks as the head coach at Lackawanna (Pa.) College. He guided Lackawanna to 43 wins in his two seasons, including a 25-7 mark in 2008-09. Two of his Falcon players earned NJCAA Division II All-America honors and one signed with a Big East Conference program.

Netti spent a total of seven seasons at GWU, serving alongside Craft as an assistant coach from 2004-07. During his first stint with the Bulldogs, Netti was on the bench for two of the best seasons in the Bulldogs' brief Division I history. He was a part of their 2004-05 Atlantic Sun regular season championship team and saw the Bulldogs win 35 games between 2004-06.He departed the Gardner-Webb program in 2006 to become an assistant coach at St. Franics College (N.Y.) for two seasons.<p>

He was instrumental in the development of two-time A-Sun Conference Defensive Player-of-the-Year Tim Jennings and a pair of recruiting classes that were ranked No. 1 in the league by HoopScoop.

A 2002 graduate of Syracuse University, Netti played basketball at Division III Alvernia College in Reading, Pa., where he was a two-year varsity letterman. In 2000, Alvernia won the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Division III National Tournament. During his time at Alvernia, Netti was also the team's representative on the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

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